Public dollars for private schools issue heads to court

The use of North Carolina tax dollars to provide grants for use in private schools is, we believe, bad public policy. But is it unconstitutional? The courts will decide.

The North Carolina Association of Educators and the North Carolina Justice Center have sued in Wake County Superior Court on behalf of some two dozen parents, teachers and others. They argue that the grants violate the provision in the state Constitution that says the state school fund must be "used exclusively for establishing and maintaining a uniform system of free public schools."

Champions of the grants say the money never was put in the school fund. It will be administered by the agency that handles financial aid for college students.

These are the sort of details that make for difficult and sometimes strained court decisions. Our hope is that the judges recognize the state's maneuver as a path to get around the Constitution's requirements and throw it out.

Defenders of the grants insist they are trying to help poor children who are not being served in the public system. To receive a grant when the program begins in the spring, a student must be eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

That's for now. Once the program is established there's no reason to think General Assembly couldn't tinker with it, expanding or eliminating the income qualification. Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, made it clear his goal is a tuition system open to all. "We're fighting for the principle that no kid should be forced to attend a school that continues to fail them another year," he said.

If that happens, private schools will become the de facto school system for the middle class and the wealthy, while conventional public schools will become underfunded dumping grounds for the poor.

Why? Because the grant, currently set at $4,200 a year, will not pay for most private schools. Middle-class and wealthy parents can afford to supplement the grant; poor parents cannot.

We hear a lot, generally overblown, about how public schools are failing. But what about private schools? "Private schools don't provide a report card of their results to the public," said Mike Ward, a former state school superintendent and one of the plaintiffs. "Private schools don't account to the taxpayers about who they serve, who they underserve and who they refuse to serve."

On top of that, Ward said, "vouchers are bad public policy. They tear away millions of dollars that are badly needed by the pubic schools." The tab this year is $10 million.

And then there's the matter that 70 percent of the private schools in North Carolina are religiously oriented. What happened to the idea that taxpayer money should not be used to underwrite religious education?

The grants are a bad idea all around. Proponents of public education were left with no recourse but to sue, as they could get no satisfaction from the other two branches of government. May they, and us, fare better in the courts.

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Public dollars for private schools issue heads to court

The use of North Carolina tax dollars to provide grants for use in private schools is, we believe, bad public policy. But is it unconstitutional? The courts will decide.